


once upon a dream

by The_IPRE



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Curses, Fairy Tale Solutions, Multi, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 02:17:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21153956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_IPRE/pseuds/The_IPRE
Summary: “True love comes in many forms, man, and besides,” Kristen said, grin fully locked and loaded. “What’s a little kiss between bros?”---Fig and Riz haven't woken up, the Nightmare King seems like some fairy tale bullshit, so the Bad Kids find a fairy tale solution.





	once upon a dream

**Author's Note:**

> I saw some talk about sleeping beauty-ing the sleeping folks, and it's not gonna happen in canon, but that's what fanfic is for! Slipping it in just under the buzzer on this one, can't wait to see how the show /actually/ goes

Fabian frowned down at the stream of texts that he had sent to Riz. They weren’t  _ desperate _ , Fabian didn’t do  _ desperate _ , he was only ever cooly concerned at the most, but there were a fair number of them.

It was the day that their quest for the Nightmare King’s crown was  _ supposed _ to begin, but Fig hadn’t woken up from inside her weird piano bubble, even when Adaine stole her pillow, and Riz wasn’t responding to his texts, and Fabian was doing his best to act unaffected but it was starting to get a bit worrying. 

Riz wouldn’t have missed the quest. If Fabian knew him – and he liked to think that he did, after everything that they had been through – he had probably kept himself up the whole night, thinking himself in knots and planning for every possible contingency.

Fabian held himself together, because he would  _ not _ be nervous, and certainly not this early.

All quests had inauspicious beginnings, and it was better to just get it out of the way now. He refused to think about what might happen if Fig didn’t wake up, or if Riz was in the same condition.

They were adventurers. Bumps in the road came with the territory.

“Does anyone have Sklonda’s crystal number?” Fabian wasn’t worried. He was practical.

Adaine looked up from where she was sitting next to Fig, orb sitting in her lap as she flipped through her spellbook. “I have Ms. Gukgak’s number. Why do you need it, though? Is-”

“Riz isn’t responding to my texts, and it’s most likely nothing,” Fabian said, ignoring Kristen poorly disguising a “ _ thirsty _ ” under a cough. “I just want to make sure that he isn’t in the same boat as.” He paused, looking over at Fig. “Just wanted to make sure that he set his alarm. You know.”

Adaine nodded, pulling up Sklonda’s contact and passing her crystal over to Fabian. She took a breath, looking like she wanted to say something; paused, drummed her nails on the glass of her casting orb. “I had bad dreams last night,” she said at last, mouth twisting to the side as she tried to put together her words. “It wasn’t like my usual visions, but.” She looked down at one of the pages in her spellbook, fiddled with it. “I dreamed of drowning?”

“Did you prepare water breathing?” Kristen said, poking Fig’s face.

“Of course I prepared water breathing, I’m not going to make the same mistake that Eleminthindriel did, but it was just. I know that we’re going to be going up against the Nightmare King and his minions, but combined with Fig not waking up and Riz-” Fabian was looking at his crystal, focusing on the text that he was sending to Sklonda, but he felt Adaine’s eyes glance over. “Just seems a little inauspicious.”

“When has it ever not been,” Fabian said, tossing Adaine’s crystal back. His chest was still tight, the sensation of falling hooking up and under his ribcage, but he was fine. Bad dreams were just to be expected.

Adaine opened her mouth, likely preparing to bring up any number of arguments that would completely undercut what Fabian had just said, but then they heard the front door downstairs  _ thud _ open and Gorgug’s voice echo up through the halls. “Hey guys, are you, uh, are you ready for this quest?”

“Up here,” Adaine called, looking down and again flipping through the pages of the spellbook that she  _ had _ to have memorized by now. Fabian wouldn’t call her on it, though; he kept locking and unlocking his crystal every five seconds as he waited for a text.

Things were fine. Tensions were just running high, but they were all adventurers. They were competent, they were sophomores in high school, everything would turn out fine.

“What are you all doing up here?” Gorgug asked, walking into the room with a truly astonishing amount of bags in his arms. There looked to be at least two refrigerated satchels, a backpack that probably weighed as much as Riz, and Fabian had to step to the side to avoid getting hit by a huge battle axe as Gorgug turned.

“Fig won’t wake up,” Kristen said, poking her in the cheek again. 

Gorgug ambled over, and Adaine batted Kristen’s hand away from Fig’s face, but before Fabian could watch that whole interaction shake out, his crystal was buzzing in his hand and he had it unlocked almost before he looked down.

He felt his breath catch, chest tight like he was falling through nothingness again.

_ sklonda: Riz is in his office, and he isn’t waking up. _

“Shit.” Fabian sent a quick reply, clicked his crystal off, put it in a pocket. “Riz seems to be in the same boat that Fig is, so, ah, I am going to head over.” He didn’t have a plan. Maybe he could bring Riz back on the Hangman, or maybe Riz was just a heavy sleeper, but he couldn’t just  _ stand _ there, watching Fig and her shallow breathing.

Kristen pulled herself to her feet. “I’ll go with you! Things seem kind of wild and I don’t want to split the party.”

“Delightful.” Even as Fabian spoke, he was already heading down the steps, calling for the Hangman to meet him outside. It should take about fifteen minutes to get to Strongtower Luxury apartments, and he could probably get there in ten, and he didn’t know what he was going to do next but he knew that he had to keep moving, because that was what he could  _ do _ .

The Hangman pulled up just as he opened the front door, and he jogged down the front steps, ignoring the pit in his stomach as he threw a leg over the seat. The thrum of an engine under his thighs, the split second of falling, nerves and tension ratcheted up in his chest as he ran his thoughts ragged.  _ Drive to the apartment. Wake Riz up. Wake Fig up. Go on the quest. Retrieve the crown. Make it to junior year _ . 

Kristen shouted a goodbye to Tracker into the house as she left, and then she was behind Fabian on the Hangman and he was taking off, running steps through his mind and ignoring all of the gaps between them.

This was going to be fine.

* * *

Five minutes and countless traffic crimes later, Fabian was pulling up to Strongtower, and his hair was probably a mess, and he forced himself to take a moment to pat it into a respectable shape. He was  _ not _ going to act worried, because he  _ wasn’t _ worried, and everything was going to be fine, because they were the Bad Kids. 

Even when things seemed like they were ruined, things always turned their way. Hells, they had been thrown into prison, and even that hadn’t been able to hold them.

“When I level up, I’ve gotta learn greater restoration,” Kristen said, slinging her staff over a shoulder and walking towards the apartments.

“What? Oh, yes, that seems like it would have been useful.” Fabian followed, checking his crystal – no new messages – and hating how he paused before he spoke up again. He was  _ Fabian Aramais Seacaster _ , and despite having friends he didn’t need to get  _ soft _ . “Probably best to get up there, sooner we do the sooner we can wake Riz up and the sooner this quest can start.”

Kristen nodded, and then started  _ sprinting _ up the stairs. “Race you!” She yelled over a shoulder, chunky boots pounding against the steps.

“What- cheater!” Fabian shouted, racing up after her. 

He made it up to Riz’s office first, because Kristen had an incredibly low dexterity and  _ did _ trip on the stairs, despite her head start, and there was a smile on his face as he approached the frosted glass of the door.

“Fuck you,” Kristen wheezed behind him, punching him on the arm with a blow that  _ did _ actually hurt.

“Ah, fuck you too,” Fabian said, but the laugh under his words froze in his lungs when he pushed open the door.

The room was too clean, not enough paper on the desk to clutter it and the corkboard on the wall still relatively neat. There were only two coffee cups left on the desk, and all the drawers were closed. Riz clearly hadn’t had time to move into the space yet, and Fabian could almost imagine what the office would look like when Riz had really started to spend too much time there, but that was just a distant thought.

Much more pressing was the cot taking up a corner of the room, where Riz lay curled into a ball. He was still wearing what he’d had on the night before, and he really did seem so small when he was asleep, knees tucked so tightly to his chest that it almost looked painful. 

Sklonda stepped forwards, cup of coffee heavy in one hand, and the slight smile she tried to offer them was overshadowed by worry. “You’re going for the Nightmare King and his crown, yeah?”

“Ah, yes, that is the case,” Fabian said. He was edging towards Riz, not very subtly. “Bad dreams and, apparently, not waking up, seems par for the course, huh?”

Sklonda sighed. “Apparently. Never thought that I would regret Riz getting more sleep, but.” She looked over, huffed out a laugh. “I’m going to get some more coffee, call a cleric. Hopefully you guys can wake him up, but if not, I’m sure there are favors I can call in. Need anything?” As she talked, she kept glancing over at Riz, sipping at her empty mug, and Fabian hated this fucking tension that was hanging in the air.

“We’re good, Ms. Gukgak, thanks.” Kristen stepped aside to let Sklonda through the door, and she shot a look of pure teenaged ineptitude at Fabian as Sklonda walked down the stairs, murmuring under her breath. “What do you do when a  _ parent _ is the one on the edge of a breakdown?” Kristen whispered, following Fabian over to Riz’s cot. 

“Uh, nothing? Because they’re adults, and their shit is their shit?”

“Hey, I just don’t want Riz to come back and snipe my ass because we let Sklonda go off the deep end while he was asleep. I’m just saying, she didn’t seem like she was doing great.”

“Yeah, well, no shit, her son’s in a magic not-quite-a-coma.” Fabian batted her hand away from where she was poking Riz’s cheek, because,  _ really _ , she was a cleric, why was her first response when faced with someone who was probably under a curse to poke them? Fabian didn’t really do the whole  _ magic _ thing, but it seemed like spells were something you had for a reason, and that reason was so as not to get your hands dirty.

“Hey, just trying to help my friend,” Kristen said. “Do you think that parents can talk to Jawbone?” A wide-eyed grin started to cross her face. “What if she and Jawbone-”

“Nope, uh, you are  _ not _ setting up more of our parents, this whole, ah, thing, is getting complicated enough already,” Fabian said, shuddering at just how much more entangled the Bad Kids family tree could get. “Besides, she is happy with Gorthalax, and Sandralynn and Jawbone are happy-”

“Hey, Jawbone’s poly-”

“I- yes, good for him, but that’s not the  _ point _ here. The point is-” Fabian, blinked, trying to find the point, because he was sure that he had one. “The  _ point _ is,” he said, gesturing grandly at Riz’s body. “That she is not on her best game because her son is probably cursed, so we should just figure out how to wake up Sleeping Beauty here.”

Kristen’s face got the look it always did when she was about to make a preposterous claim, and in that instant Fabian regretted everything that he had ever said. “Sleeping  _ beauty? _ ”

“Ah, yes, like the children’s story? Curses and-” Fabian cut himself off. “The Ball has been cursed to fall asleep, it seemed like a culturally relevant touchstone, do  _ not _ look at me with that face-”

“Hey, I’m  _ just _ saying, you’re the one who brought up a story that resolves itself with true love’s kiss,” Kristen said, and Fabian scoffed, trying to hide how he was sputtering. That hadn’t been what he meant, and he  _ may _ have had kisses on the brain lately, but that was only because he was going to rescue Aelwyn, and then they were going to kiss, and it was going to be excellent.

He definitely hadn't brought it up because he wanted to kiss his friend. Like, sure, he had  _ thought _ about it before, because who _didn’t_ think about kissing the person who they refused to admit was their best friend, but he kept that shit on lockdown. He was in love with Aelwyn. Definitely.

“Well, I- ah, just. How do you even know about Sleeping Beauty? Didn’t you read ‘The Millions of Bloodied Non Believers’ or whatever as a kid?”

“Tracker’s been catching me up on the fairy tales I missed out on, and some of it is  _ really _ fucked up – like, not the same level as some of the stuff I used to read, but still  _ so _ many limbs getting chopped off for being a kid who is supposed to have a normal childhood – but that’s not the point.” Kristen had a smile like she  _ knew _ she was using his words against him and Fabian just scowled, because he never knew what she was planning and then when he  _ did _ , it was too late to do anything except protest.

Protest he would, though, because he was a  _ Seacaster _ , and even if he didn’t win he was going to fight, kicking and screaming, from being forced to face any emotion other than bravado. “Yes, the point is that we need to wake Riz up, so that his mother isn’t stressed and we may go on this quest and graduate sophomore year.”

“Point is, you should kiss him,” Kristen stated, laughing when Fabian sat down with a groan. “Might wake Riz up, might discover something about yourself-”

“I’m not going to kiss the Ball when he’s unconscious-  _ or _ ever,” Fabian said. “Kissing someone when they’re unconscious is just  _ rude _ , and besides, all of that fairy tale stuff, it’s true love’s kiss, right? We all know, my true love is Aelwyn.”

“I dare you to say that in front of Adaine.”

“Oh I  _ will _ .”

Kristen laughed. “Oh, she’s got a ray of sickness with your  _ name _ on it. Fairy tale bullshit, though.”

Fabian dropped his head back against the wall, because Kristen had created an entire  _ god _ her freshman year of high school, and apparently what she wanted to use that tenacity for was to torment her friend. He looked over at Riz, intent on running away from this conversation for as long as he could, and that tightness that he had been carrying around in his chest all day amped up.

Riz’s chest expanded, contracted, and for how much space he could take up when he was awake, he really was small. There was a glint of a metal necklace around his chest and his clothes were wrinkled, and the magical sleep hadn’t managed to ease all of the thinking lines from his face-

And by the time that Fabian realized the thoughts running through his head, and the fact that Kristen was  _ very _ insightful, he felt a sinking pit of regret in his stomach. He just  _ knew _ that when he looked back over, she was going to have that shit eating grin on her face.

“Unless we can get  _ Baron _ from the Baronese over here-”

“Baron doesn’t even exist.”

“Exactly. You’re Riz’s best friend, right?”

“I- ugh,” Fabian said, glancing over to see that Riz was still asleep next to him. “Fine. Maybe. Maybe he’s my best friend, so what.”

“True love comes in many forms, man, and besides,” Kristen said, grin fully locked and loaded. “What’s a little kiss between bros?”

Fabian put his head in his hands. He hated  _ everything _ that was going on here, but with every passing moment he felt the dawning realizing that this was the life he was living, and he was probably going to end up kissing his possibly best friend.

Wonderful.

“If this doesn’t work, you  _ can’t _ tell anyone,” Fabian said, scooting further along the cot so that he was closer to Riz.

“I definitely won’t.”

“I don’t believe you,” Fabian said, scowling at Kristen, but his glare didn’t have any bite to it. He was already thinking about the fact that, yeah, he apparently was going to kiss Riz, and this was just what he was doing with his life now, and he couldn’t really bring himself to regret it all that much. 

He paused, hand on the side of Riz’s face. “Can’t believe I’m doing this.” Empty protest said, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Riz’s lips.

A second passed, and then two, and he pulled away, and.

Nothing had happened.

The small bit of hope that he had been doing his best to suffocate turned to ash, because, of course. Why would this be that kind of curse, and why would he be Riz’s true  _ anything _ even if it was, and Fabian squared his shoulders and stood up-

And then there was a voice, tinged with confusion and just a bit of tiredness, the voice that Fabian could probably pick out of any crowd because he'd listened to it for hours. 

“Did you just kiss me?”

“Ah, the Ball, I- ah. It was a curse, you were cursed, at least I think that you were? You weren’t waking up – neither is Fig, by the way, we should probably text Adaine – and. Well.” Fabian looked down at Riz, made eye contact, felt something seize in his chest. Riz had a finger resting lightly against his lips like he didn’t even realize it was there, and then he was blushing, and then Fabian was blushing, and Kristen was laughing, and he _knew_ she wasn't going to keep this whole thing a secret. “Yes, I might have kissed you. I  _ did _ have a reason though! It wasn’t just- I. I was trying to break the curse. And it worked, so now we can go on the quest, and. Yeah.”

Oh, yeah. He was  _ not _ going to hear the end of this.

* * *

“So, it sounds like Fabian kissed Riz, Riz woke up, and now they’re on their way back.” 

“What?”

Gorgug looked up from his crystal and shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s just what Kristen said.”

“Looks like Fabian got those kisses he was looking for,” Adaine said, eyes flickering down to Fig. She hadn’t moved for the past half hour, just the slight inhale and exhale of breath, and that felt  _ wrong _ . Every time that they’d had a sleepover, Fig had managed to starfish and take up the entire bed. Either that, or she would end up curling around Adaine, warm and heavy and comforting, and saying weird things that she never remembered when she woke up.

This stasis was unsettling.

Fig was loud, and always shifting, and becoming other people, and taking up as much space as the world would allow her and then some. 

The room was quiet, Adaine curled around her orb and Gorgug tapping his hands against his thighs before breaking the silence. “I shouldn’t be the one to kiss her.”

“What? Who said that you  _ should _ be the one to kiss her?”

Gorgug shrugged. “A kiss woke Riz up, right? It would probably wake Fig up too. Not from me, though. I like Zelda, and Fig and I are just friends, so.”

“Are you saying that _I_ should kiss Fig?” Adaine leveled a look at Gorgug, doing her best not to look like she was thinking about the times that she had imagined kissing Fig. She was just one of those charismatic people that everyone had a crush on, and even though Adaine didn’t really get the whole hype around romance, she kind of felt like if she would want to date  _ anyone _ , it would probably be Fig.

That didn’t mean she could just  _ kiss _ her, though. That would be weird, especially because she was unconscious, but also because it was  _ Adaine _ , and kissing was weird, and her brain had been doing a lot better lately but it would have a field day with making things weird if she kissed Fig.

Gorgug shrugged again, putting his hands in his hoodie pockets. “I don’t know, it just seems like the thing to do, right? Kisses break curses. The Nightmare King seems like he’s all about weird chaos and fairy tales, so, I don’t know. Maybe?”

“True love’s kiss isn’t a thing, the concept of ‘true love’ is a flawed concept, but.” Adaine sighed, thinking back to everything that she’d read about the Nightmare King. “It does seem like the kind of fairy tale bullshit that him or his henchpeople would try to pull. I just- this is, I don’t know, I-”

Adaine frowned, dug her fingernails into her knees, and then in a brilliant moment of impulsivity leaned forward and kissed Fig.

She pulled back almost instantly, and it wasn’t a good kiss by any stretch of the imagination, and she felt herself flushing almost as soon as she made contact, because  _ really _ . What was she thinking? This was just weird fairy tale superstition that kids were told back when they were also told that you had to be straight and everything could be solved by magic, and frankly, it was ridiculous. 

Just as she was planning how to best pack up everything she owned and move to the Baronese, Fig’s voice spoke up from next to her. 

“Ooh, what was that about?”

Adaine buried her head in her hands. She  _ was _ going to burn a spell slot, and she  _ was _ going to cast blink, and she  _ was _ going to vanish into a forest somewhere that she could just have shitty visions and raise frogs in peace.

“You were cursed. She was uncursing you,” Gorgug said, completely oblivious to Adaine’s plight.

“Oh.” A pause. “Sick!”

Adaine vanished into the ethereal plane.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment or kudos, or come talk to me on tumblr at [the-ipre](https://the-ipre.tumblr.com)!


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